Last month, voters on the Navajo Nation elected their youngest ever president. Buu Nygren, who’ll be 36 when he takes the oath of office next month, has never held elected office and comes from a construction management background. He campaigned on accountability, strengthening the Navajo economy and providing basic services to residents. KNAU’s Ryan Heinsius spoke with Nygren about his priorities for the presidency and vision for the future of Navajo.
Ryan Heinsius: What will your perspective bring to the leadership of the tribe?
Buu Nygren: Most of the Navajo population, the larger base, is probably my age and lower. So, we represent a lot of that 400,000 and I think for far too long our voices haven’t been heard. And our elders and our parents have always told us, get an education, get experience, come back, we really need you all to help us move forward. And I feel like having that voice at the highest level such as the president’s office representing that group, it’s going to be an exciting time over these next four years because I definitely want to try to make the Navajo Nation more efficient, more effective. I’ve got a traditional Navajo hair bun, I wear my coral, I wear my jewelry. I’m not very shy about being proud to be Navajo, and that’s one of the things I also campaigned on that we can be modern, we can be Navajo at the same time and we can have a lot of influence and who knows, let’s try to be the trend-setters into the future.
RH: During the campaign you oriented yourself often as the candidate of change. After you take office, what changes do you want to make first?
BN: One of the things that I’ve learned from the outside and trying to work with the Navajo Nation personally when I used to work for one of their enterprises, is that Navajo has gotten so good at developing red tape, our own internal red tape, that we can’t get anything done. And that’s one of the things I want to focus on is to really try to streamline the process. We are trying to help people that don’t have a voice, that don’t have money, that don’t have opportunities that are facing a lot of the social ills across Navajo. And that’s why we’re doing it. Let’s cover the fundamental issues on Navajo, let’s fix those first. Not only am I talking about everyday Navajo people that live there, that are living like this, but at the same time people like myself, who’ve gone off and done the good work that our families have told us to do. How do we bring them back so they can be part of the community?
RH: You’ve been critical of the pace of progress for boosting the Navajo economy. How do you plan to expedite initiatives that could bring jobs to the reservation?
BN: As I campaigned, I’m very anti-poverty mindset, because I grew up with no running water, no electricity, lost my mom to alcoholism—all the basic struggles of normal Navajo people. That’s what fuels me is: How do we help those people? The way we help those people is we’ve got to have a stronger economy. So, one of the things I want to do is make it more enticing for Navajo small businesses, meaning right now it’s hard for them to even find retail space to open up a shop. So that’s one of the things I want to do is really showcase to the world that if they want to invest in Navajo, if they want to help create businesses or environments or create jobs on Navajo that we’re going to be fair. I want to start investing in ourselves and work with the Navajo Nation Council. I think we’re all on the same page when it comes to the economy because for far too long, we’re being left behind.
RH: As you mentioned there are numerous challenges facing the Navajo Nation from roads and infrastructure to electricity and water access. As an incoming president how do you address so many topics at once?
BN: I will always stand for people that are just asking for basic needs. They want water to survive, they need power to survive to make sure they can heat themselves, heat their water and things like that. And they need better access to their homes through their roads. To me, it shouldn’t get political when you’re just trying to provide basics. So that’s going to be my approach I think over the next four years is just to really push things through. We’ve got to get out of survival mode. People lose the vision of where we want to go and that’s going to be my reminder.
